Droppin' Into Hell
by Post-Human Soldier
Summary: A soldier of the UNSC, caught up in the war between the Covenant and Humanity. He follows the path to protect all that is precious to him, he will give life and limb to protect them. A tale of heroism and courage. On Indefinite Hiatus until further notice
1. Chapter 1

Droppin' into Hell

Chapter 1: Reach your goal

* * *

The Elite swung it's blade with practices discipline and expertise. Each swing brought the sharp, glowing edge closer and closer to the armoured soldier.

The soldier kept his gun levelled at the advancing Alien, ready to pull the trigger at a moment's notice. After finishing a swing, the Elite readied its blade once more. Letting out a terrifying battle cry, it charged.

The soldier was surprised by the sudden action and without a second thought, he pulled the trigger. The pistol erupted with a tongue of fire and a deafening bang. His adversary's body flared in a wave of light. It merely shrugged off the bullet like an insect. Slightly panicking, the soldier kept shooting as fast as his finger could pull the trigger. The alien's body flared once, twice then stopped. The alien clutched its torso as blood gushed from a fresh wound. In his mind, the soldier rejoiced, these things weren't invincible. The alien returned to its deadly dance of blades after a moment, backed up by lust for the blood of the soldier. Each swing was sloppy, powerful and hurried.

The soldier did not want to know what would happen if the blade connected with him. He pulled the trigger several more times, sending the creature into throes of pain. As each slug impacted, more purplish blood splattered onto his helmet's black visor. One bullet went wide, hit the blade and instantly vaporised, leaving little more than a wisp of smoke.

Click, Click, Click. The magazine was empty. Hurriedly, the soldier hit the release and slammed home a fresh clip. In a rare flourish, he pulled the back the slide and pointed it at his target.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Bla-Blam!

The Elite felt five more holes open in its flesh, each one accompanied by intense flashes of pain. Dark blood rushed out of the wounds. The alien gave random swings of it's blade in desperate attempts to harm its opponent. Pretty soon, it had fallen face first onto the ground, defeated by the loss of blood and immense pain.

The soldier shakily lowered his gun to his side. He had been close to death before, but never that close. He swore that the blade created electrical interference with his HUD. Popping the seals on the helmet, he lifted it up and over his head, revealing spiky blonde hair. The soldier rubbed his eyes, trying to find comfort in the fact that he had survived. Opening them up, he stared into his reflection on the visor. The visor was covered in alien gore, but he could still make out his ocean blue eyes. The helmet itself was painted black with an orange stripe stretching from the chin, over the crown and onto the neck.

Static crackled from the helmet's radio. He quickly placed it back on and listened whilst he scanned his surroundings. The voice was panicky and hurried.

"_To any UNSC__ personnel in the area, we have been attacked by Covenant! We have taken heavy casualties. Please anyone respond!"_

"This is Corporal Naruto Namikaze of the ODST's Fifth battalion. What's the situation soldier?" the armoured man, now known as Namikaze spoke into his helmet.

"_Namikaze! Please follow this waypoint; we need all the help we can get at the moment."_ The voice over the radio pleaded.

"I didn't ask for directions, I asked for a goddamn sit-rep!" Namikaze shouted.

"_Sorry sir,__ w- we've lost six men, two hogs and we're running low of fuel and ammo!"_ The radioman spoke slightly less panicked. _"On top of all that, we can't get through to __**the Vanguard**__. They're jamming our signal, only shortwave radio works."_

"Roger that soldier, sit tight." Naruto checked the waypoint on his HUD. "ETA is four minutes."

The black and orange soldier stood up, did a quick scan and took off through the thick foliage. His ammo counter read a half-clip still in his pistol and with only thirty spare rounds. With each step in the mud, he felt that he was gradually getting closer to home with his beloved.

'Please come back, I'll be waiting.' They were the last words he had heard from her, and that was seven months ago. He intended to come back alive. Even if Naruto lost his arms, he'd come back. He swore on his family name, that he would be reunited with his wife.

Before he knew it, he was standing before two regular marines. The electronic tags said their names were Schmeltzer and Harrison. Both of them wore the standard issue olive drab plate armour of the UNSC Marines. Schmeltzer had his eyes covered by a pair of HUD goggles and Harrison had a simple eye piece equipped with a camera. Aimed at Naruto, was a pair MA2B Assault Rifles belonging to both marines. Further behind them, Naruto noticed, was a carefully concealed overwatch sniper amongst the trees. His tag identified him as Lewinski, a private first class.

Only after his identity was confirmed by both of the marines did they lower their weapons. A simple glance left told Naruto that there was a single warthog still working, just beside the massive ATV was a much smaller vehicle. It was a mongoose; a lightly armoured four wheel vehicle was vulnerable, but incredibly fast and agile.

"Namikaze, we're planning to head north, towards Firebase Alpha to hopefully find some adequate cover and some reinforcements." Harrison spoke, his voice not really sounding all that confident.

Naruto could see the desperation in both the marines' eyes, they wanted to live and get the hell out of there. He didn't walk two steps before a too familiar sound made Lewinski panic.

"Banshees! Get some cover!"

The marines didn't need to be told twice; they sprinted to the warthog and dove under it. Naruto immediately leapt into the nearby undergrowth, covering his armour in the damp soil.

The Banshees' distinctive engine noise grew louder and louder. As he feared, they began firing their plasma cannons, each bolt turning the ground it hit to glass. A few hit the warthog and began to burn into the armour plating. Schmeltzer and Harrison were curled up to make themselves as small as possible. Heat radiated from the ground around them, almost making it unbearable.

After three more strafes, the banshees broke away, confident that the humans were dead. Only after the wailing engines faded away, did the Marines crawl out. Schmeltzer was hit in the foot, effectively cutting it off. Naruto didn't even hear him cry out in pain, although it was obvious that he was in tremendous pain. Harrison was luckily unharmed, but Lewinski didn't even come out.

Naruto held up a hand to keep the marines still while he went up to find Lewinski. His last known position was just behind a large tree, which at the moment, had been burned all the way through and collapsed. He found Lewinski, just not alive. The sniper's spine had been severed just before the tree fell, he couldn't even move out of the way. Horrifyingly, his eyes were wide open in fear, staring up at the sky. Naruto did the only thing he could at the moment; he slid a hand over the dead man's face and closed his eyes.

Trudging back to the hog, he looked at the surviving marines and shook his armoured head. A moment's silence passed before Naruto and Harrison hefted the wounded Schmeltzer into the passenger seat of the warthog. Harrison took the wheel while Naruto took the Light Anti-Air Gun mounted on the back of the warthog. Without anyone making a sound, besides the pained groans from Schmeltzer, they took off towards the north.

* * *

"Oh, fuck off!" Harrison exclaimed when he saw the state that a local city was in. The whole thing was hardly anything but rubble. A few buildings were down to their skeletal foundations, the only thing saving it from being completely glassed was the pavement and roads. The entire area surrounding them had been converted to smouldering glass craters and trenches. The marines heard the tales of planets actually being glassed, but they were never shown the entire situation.

At the very sight of the destroyed city, Naruto gripped the handles of the gun much tighter. Letting out a ragged breath, he leaned forward, still keeping his grip on the gun, and shook Harrison's shoulder.

"Let's keep moving, every moment we waste gives the Covenant more time to find us." He told the driver. Harrison, weakly nodded, still eyeing the husk of a city. Hitting the accelerator, he focused his attention of getting back to Alpha. The tires of the warthog squealed as it set off at full speed.

Naruto instinctively looked back over his shoulder. On the horizon, he saw a single glint of light. Intrigued, he activated his helmet's zoom function to get a better look. When he did, he almost regretted it.

"Harrison, step on it! We got a few Ghosts coming from behind!" Naruto shouted at the driver as he brought the massive gun to bear.

"This just isn't my day." Harrison whined, trying to speed the warthog up to 125km/ph.

Despite Harrison's efforts to keep the speed up, the Ghosts soon closed the gap. As soon as they got within range Naruto squeezed the triggers. A thunderous roar erupted from the tri-barrelled machinegun as it spewed forth .50 caliber rounds. The nearest Ghost was ripped to shreds before it could fire a single bolt. The other Ghosts glared and sped their vehicles up to get closer to the heretical human vehicle.

Naruto refused to let any ghost get any closer than the last. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop all of them getting through. Two got close enough to open fire on the fleeing warthog. The ODST was forced to take cover from the incoming plasma bolts, and then return fire. As he got the next shot lined up, the warthog suddenly jolted, making Naruto grip the gun like a life line. They had finally run into bumpy terrain, it would be painful, but they might make it slightly easier. Seeing as he wouldn't be able to line up a shot fast enough, he leaned back to Schmeltzer and held out a hand.

"Schmeltzer, give me a grenade!" Naruto commanded the wounded soldier. Shaking, Schmeltzer carefully handed the blonde his remaining grenade. Naruto pulled the pin and aimed carefully. A moment passed before he simply chucked the grenade off the edge.

It bounced once before a Ghost rammed right into it, causing it to explode. Naruto smirked as he saw a bright blue fireball light up right where he threw the grenade. His triumph was short lived as another Ghost flew right through the blue flames. Cursing, he let the bullets fly once again.

There seemed to be no end to the Ghosts, they just kept appearing. Then there was the one sound that the humans didn't want to dare hear. It was akin to a low droning, accompanying the sound was a large vaguely 'Y' shaped shadow that drifted along the ground.

Naruto snapped his neck up to the source of the sound. There it was, a large 'Y' shaped aircraft that he'd come to fear. Near the rear of the alien craft was a plasma cannon, which would rain down fire. He felt his heart skip a beat when the cannon aimed in their direction.

"Spirit!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.

As soon as the word left his mouth, the craft opened fire, hosing out bolts of plasma, three at a time. The plasma impacted all around the speeding warthog, turning the ground to glass.

The machine gun was turned to slag as a bolt hit the barrels; the warthog was essentially defenceless now. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a hail of missiles careened into the Spirit. The shields flared and died, before a second volley screamed into it. The Spirit bucked and burst into blue flames as it fell to the ground.

Just in front of the warthog, another shadow slowly grew sharper and more focused. At this shadow however, the marines relaxed slightly as they slowly pulled to a stop. Waiting for them, was a D77-TC 'Pelican' troop carrier. Harrison and Namikaze both held onto Schmeltzer as they dragged him towards the carrier, they were going to make it.

The troop bay was already open with a mounted gun pointing outwards for any hostiles. The three marines hustled into the bay and strapped themselves in as the pelican lifted off. For the first time since landing on the planet of Harmony, Naruto allowed himself to let out a sigh of relief.

When they were at a safe altitude, Naruto finally asked a question of the gunner.

"What happened to Firebase Alpha?" he shouted over the roar of the engines.

"See that smoking pile of rubble over there?" the gunner pointed out a blackened spot. "That's it. Or what's left of it. **The Vanguard** is getting the hell out of here before more Covenant show up."

**The** **Vanguard** was a destroyer class ship, usually it travelled in groups of three or four, and that was usually enough to take care of a couple covenant cruisers. If they were lucky. It was also the ship that Naruto was launched from, he was sent along with four others to search for surviving personnel. Each one was placed at a different area. Thinking about it, Jumper-3 was supposed to have the city covered; Naruto wondered if he made it out.

As the Pelican reached the outer atmosphere, the hatch sealed and everyone got comfortable. **The Vanguard** was the only ship left alive after the orbital battle a few hours ago. They would have to utilise the Cole Protocol and jump to a random system before heading back to Earth. It was there that Naruto deserved some well earned rest. He was always happy to crack a few Covenant skulls, but even he needed rest.

* * *

AN: ok, so this is just a concept at the moment. In honour of Halo Reach which is soon to be released, I'm writing a cross over between Naruto and Halo.

And really, I was quite sick of only having one or two rather quality Naruto/Halo crossovers out there. So here I am writing my own, I have been working on this for weeks, revising and rewriting various areas.

And hey if you guys like it a lot, I might even continue it. Tell me what you liked and what you didn't like, and I'll change the story around slightly.

Krimzon-8 out


	2. Chapter 2

Droppin' into Hell

Chapter 2: Reach for a Weapon

* * *

The pod hissed open, the rubber flexi-bed under Naruto stretched and stuck to his skin as he leaned out. With a stumble, he stood clumsily on the smooth floor. Trying to take a breath proved difficult, he collapsed onto all fours and coughed painfully. Slowly, green ooze began to dribble out of his mouth and onto the floor. The taste was horrible; no matter how they changed it, it always tasted like lime-flavoured mucus.

Reaching blindly for a handhold, the man grasped something and pulled himself up. After his eyes adjusted, Naruto could see the clothes were exactly where he left them. A quick glance around told him that everyone else was just waking up. 'Refugees...probably haven't even been in cryo before.' He thought to himself as he pulled the clothes on.

Just as he finished pulling the clothes on, he heard an emotionless voice speak over the PA.

"The nutrient supplement is meant to be regurgitated and swallowed, please do so." Naruto ignored this as he walked calmly over to the water fountain for a drink, he really hated that taste.

After the quick drink, he made his way to his temporary quarters. It wasn't any different to anyone else's; only that he shared the small room with five other people who he didn't know. The door slid open and he quickly threw himself onto the nearest bed, promptly claiming it. A bulge in his pocket reminded him of where the ship was headed. Naruto pulled out his PDA, and flipped it over to the photo displays.

The very first image was of him and his wife posing on a beach. It had been four years since he last saw her in person. Naruto still remembered her scent, the way she felt and the way her smile brightened his very day. Sakura. That was the name given to his personal angel. He knew that her hair wasn't naturally pink. She regularly lightened the tone of her hair colour to achieve it.

Unlike him, Sakura wasn't military, but she lived and worked as a doctor on the Luna base. It was during his training to be an ODST that he met her. A stray bullet to the torso sent him back to Luna for better treatment. He woke up after seventy-two hours of being on ice. It just so happened that Sakura was his nurse for the time he was recovering. Over that time, they got to know each other very well, almost to the point where they slept together in the hospital beds once. The next year they were married.

That was six years ago, ever since he started fighting in the war, he always sent something back to her as a present of where he went. Whether it was a scavenged jewel or a preserved flower, he always got it to her.

At least he was a few steps closer to being together with her; all that was standing between them was a few months' post at Reach. **The Vanguard** needed to be refitted and extensively repaired, it had lost almost sixty-eight percent of the armour and approximately five out of the nine decks were slag. The Nuclear Fusion Reactor and Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine were both intact, enabling it to at least travel back to Reach.

Now they were about to enter Reach orbit. To get into Reach they would have to go through tedious security checks and identification scans. So far, Naruto didn't see the point in all of it. They're obviously a human ship, with humans on board. Not like the Covenant would actually want to step foot on a UNSC ship anyway. Probably think it was 'unholy' or something. In fact the only time the Covenant would set foot on a UNSC ship was to destroy it.

Sliding his PDA away into his pocket, Naruto picked himself up and went to the Armoury; he needed to check something.

* * *

He spent at least twenty minutes cleaning his armour, and the ship still hadn't entered atmosphere. Sighing in distress, Naruto put aside his armour and went to the spare parts bin; hopefully he could find something to add. A few more armoured plates couldn't hurt.

A quick sift through and he only found an elongated pauldron, Naruto was hoping for a thigh guard. He'd seen a couple of Spartans in action, but that only proved that having faster reflexes payed off, not more armour. To be truthful, he didn't know what to think of the massive super soldiers. Other ODSTs despised them; saying that they weren't human, while the marines and civilians that the Spartans saved praised them like super heroes or something.

Pushing the thoughts of super soldiers aside, Naruto needed to replace his MA37. He lost his last one on his previous jump. All that remained was to tweak the sights, adjust the grips and he would be fine. Ever since the BR55 came to be in 2448, Naruto avoided it where ever he could. Something about the burst fire setting irked him. After all, he was more suited to the old M392 DMR. His Commanding Officers often told him that if he was any more accurate, he'd be assigned a sniper rifle.

Another few minutes tweaking and testing, and he was set to battle, even if that wasn't going to happen soon. The best that happened on Reach was Insurrectionist activity, and even that was unlikely due to the immense UNSC garrison.

As if his prayers were answered, the captain announced that they were going to break atmosphere and be assigned to a dry-dock for repairs. Although the refugees said that the entry was rough, Naruto barely felt a thing. After all, he'd gone feet first inside a SOEIV.

As soon as **The Vanguard** docked, Naruto had his things packed and was on the first Pelican out of there. The cargo hold had been extended in this particular Pelican, probably for transporting extra personnel around Reach. At the moment, the Pelican was heading for New Alexandria, one of the Metropolitan Cities on Reach.

A large river separated the city into two halves, but on either side of the river, buildings shone like majestic mirrors. One river bank was home to a natural park while the other housed the local transit hub. Naruto's pelican was set down on the transit hub's rough tarmac. He made his way to the lobby, where he had to wait for at least another hour.

Once the hour was finished, he was ushered onto a military transport. Normally, this wouldn't be so bad, that is, **if** his transport wasn't a 'Falcon' Aerial transport. The Falcon is a smaller version of a Pelican, although much deadlier. Usually Falcons were outfitted with pilot controlled-chin mounted cannon, as well as light machine guns mounted on both sides, this alone would be enough to raid a Covenant outpost.

Sure the Falcon was good in a combat situation, but as a simple transport it fell far below the mark set by the Pelican. The exposed thrusters and propellers created a deafening roar from within the small passenger's area. Too make it worse, there were already enough people inside it. Naruto had to stand up whilst holding onto a safety strap.

For the next half an hour, Naruto was stiff. When the falcon finally touched down at his new posting, he spent quite a while stretching to remove said stiffness.

It took a moment for Naruto to actually survey his surroundings. He was standing on a roughly rectangular slab of tarmac being suspended by thick cables and a single support beam. At one end of the tarmac was a flight of stairs, which led higher into the structure. A peek over the edge of the platform confirmed that he was on one of the many mountain tops of Reach. Barely hovering above him were thin wisps of clouds. If it weren't for his helmet and armour that he equipped before stepping onto the Falcon, Naruto would probably be suffocating right now.

Piecing the clues together, Naruto affirmed that he was at the 'Archer' ODST base. Archer base is supposedly the birth place of the ODSTs, the idea, concepts and prototypes of the Shock Troopers was conceived here in top secret.

Naruto climbed up the stairway, as he reached the top he could see someone waiting for him. It was another Hell jumper, although, the armour was slightly different. It was more curved, sleek and seemed much tougher. They even made their own additions to the armour. Painted on the left shoulder was a purple snake that curled around the arm, the neck extended around their back and onto their helmet. Just above the helmet's edge were two snake-like eyes, on the face-plate were two stripes that ran down the glass. It gave the image that the trooper was a large snake.

Just as Naruto was about to step through the air locked door, the trooper suddenly spoke up.

"You Namikaze?" the trooper's voice sounded through their helmet. Naruto had only just noticed it, but their helmet was still polarized. Depolarizing his own, he replied.

"Yeah, that's me." Naruto spoke.

"'Bout time, I was getting tired of waiting for you." The trooper said again, depolarizing their own helmet. Standing in front of Naruto was a woman. "Name's Anko Miterashi. Welcome to Archer base."

"Good to be here."

The door slid open with a hiss, telling both of then that the airlock was ready. Naruto hauled his duffel bag in before the doors closed.

The interior of the base seemed very much like the standard affair. Each area was air tight, to keep the higher pressure of the air in. At one end of the base were the recreation area and the barracks. The other end featured a quite literal 'Infantry Cannon', in which ODSTs would load up in their pods and be fired into low orbit, then plummet, back into the planet's atmosphere. It basically allowed for the local garrison of ODSTs to be deployed anywhere within a few hours.

The name was changed slightly however to accommodate the newer delivery system. Low Orbit Shock Troopers, they called themselves, LOST for short. Although it was still a work in progress, all the bugs haven't been worked out. As such, no one has been actually launched.

Naruto dumped his stuff onto his assigned bed. Thankfully, everything was still there, including the details for his configuration of an MA37. He hadn't been able to actually take his already configured weapon from **The Vanguard**.

Anko had offered to give him a quick tour, but he declined. The only thing he needed right now is a bit of rest before his first assignment. Which would be soon, if command was to follow their consistent pattern.

* * *

**Four months later.**

**July 24****th**** 2028 Hours, 2552.**

"_Colonel, this is Noble One. There are no Rebels. The Covenant are on Reach. Acknowledge?"_

"_Come again Noble One? Did you say Covenant?"_

"_Affirmative. It's the Winter Contingency."_

"_Then may God help us all."_

* * *

AN: Well chapter two is done. I've done what I promised and fleshed out Naruto's back-story.

Sorry for those hoping for a NaruHina or something else, just didn't feel like it would be right.

Next chapter: **Winter Contingency**

See you all then, Krimzon-8 out.


End file.
